5 Ways You Know You Are Doing too Much with Your Natural Hair

I am sure you have heard the saying, “less is more” haven’t you? If you haven’t heard that then you must have heard the saying that simplicity is the “ultimate sophistication” which can be pretty comforting if you are a ‘lazy natural’.

To be honest I do not like the word lazy when describing a regimen that is relatively simple, but often you will hear the two words being used when describing a basic regimen without the hoopla. The truth is, you can attain the same goals if you take the drama out of the process, the thing is how do you know when you are doing too much.

Here are 5 clues that will tell you that you are doing way too much in your regimen:

1. Your wash day lasts 4-6 hours

Honey*, ain’t nobody got time to be sitting around all day on Sunday or Saturday doing hair. There are naturals out there that have a ritual on wash day that literally lasts longer than 2 hours, between deep conditioning*, washing, styling natural hair, it all seems to take forever.

What we propose: Deep condition your hair over night while you sleep, cleanse and style the following day. Very simple, your hair is moisturized and you used your sleep time to do the bulk of the work.

2. Way too many products

I love a product junkie, she is interesting, she likes to try new things, but an effective product junkie knows what her hair needs and when, she isnt using every product she has on one day.

There is nothing wrong with trying something new, but if it causes confusion with your core regimen then you are doing too much.

What we propose: Forget about products, pay attention to ingredients, if you hair hates glycerin do not purchase a bunch of products with glycerin as the main ingredient only to have an unsuccessful outcome with your hair. Purchase products your hair likes based on the back of the bottle and not the front.

3. A very productive regimen but no real results

There is no point in doing a million things to your hair only for it not meet the goals you set for it. Sometimes we have to break up with our regimen and start to simplify things a bit to see exactly what is causing the problem. Are you co washing too often? Are you using too much protein? Do you need a trim?.

What we propose: To see positive change you will have to drill down to the bear minimum and then build from there.

4. Your scalp is screaming for help!

Scalp buildup is real y’all! You can literally clog your pores and cause infection on your scalp with too much manipulation, too much product, too much styling.

Your scalp will tell you when things have gone haywire, it will itch, you might notice flakes, you might even notice little bumps sometimes that are a result of too much of something.

What we propose: Get knowledgeable about how your scalp works, really you need to keep your scalp clean and free of unnecessary buildup, that’s it! If you have some underlying issues that causes buildup regardless of what you do then you should visit a dermatologist for the best advice for your situation.

5. Over styling

Listen, we know that there is this thing that tugs at your heart that says your hair needs to look like ‘this’ in order to be considered “done”. When you think about styling your hair you might think about having every ringlet perfectly in place, you might want to zap every single bit of frizz that you have…. forget it!

Embrace the frizz girl, our hair attracts moisture when there is moisture in the air or if there is just a little steam somewhere, the point is you cant control everything every time.

Stop walking around with gel in your purse and just let your hair do its thing.

What we propose: focus on giving your hair moisture that will last, so on wash day deep condition your hair well and protect your curls at night. Your curls might not be perfect day to day but you should be able to feel that your hair is not dry and that is what matters.

If you just cannot take the way your hair looks frizzy, then do a nice protective style or updo, which will be your go to style for days that frizz is just not working for you.

If you feel that your regimen is exhausting try breaking it down to the point where you are giving your hair just what it needs and nothing more.

Focus on these four things, cleansing, moisture, protein and protection that’s it! Figure out the best cleanser for your hair and when you will use it. For example, using a moisture based shampoo weekly and a clarifying shampoo* once a month.

Figure out when your hair needs moisture, pick your product and determine when to administer it. Some of us can get away with a great deep conditioning* session that keeps our hair moisturized all week long, others of us might need to throw in a cowash midweek.

Strengthen your hair with protein once a month or if you have fine or damaged strands, once a week! Style your hair with growth retention in mind, 99% of the time.

Everything else that you might do to your hair should be for fun, and not be stressful, lets put the fun back in hair care, still meet our goals and leave the fluff behind!